ARTICLES
Why Do People Wear Fake Designer?
Every now and then I like to take a walk around my city shopping centre for mainly two reasons: a) to avoid lunchtime interaction with my crush at the office; and b) to avoid lunchtime interaction with my crush at the office. Anyway, that’s beside the point. Today I passed by a mannequin wearing a dress with “Ye Saint Lo” printed on it. I guess this dress was paying homage to Kanye ‘Ye’ West, Yves Saint Laurent, and Saint-Lô (a commune in France)… maybe? This dress can be termed as a knockoff… But what is a knockoff?
This is a knockoff logo, clearly not Yves Saint Laurent though so no one gets in trouble for producing such a monstrosity. You know what...? The longer I look at it, it... Hmm...
Simply put, knockoffs typically refer to goods or products intended to resemble those that are well-known and recognisable, but have obvious differences whether it be the name, logo, or the design (e.g., see photo attached). Think 'inspired by'. I personally don't like the term knockoff but, it is what it is. Knockoffs may even be referred to as 'dupes' or 'copycats'. Knockoffs and dupes look similar to the real deal, but aren't exact; consumers should be able to distinguish that the product is different from the original without batting an eyelid. Moreover, knockoffs are legal because they're designed to be distinct enough to avoid trademark and copyright infringement, unlike counterfeit goods. Knockoffs can be of the same quality as the original product, just with a vastly different price tag (maybe, it depends on what we're looking at).
If you've ever wondered why brands, large corporations, supermarkets, and businesses don't get in trouble for creating knockoff products, this is mainly due to the fact that they're not exact copies.
Counterfeit goods are designed to be 100% identical to and perceived as an original and authentic product, often misleading consumers. The quality is often noticeably poorer, e.g., the stitching may be different, things may be misspelled. Replicas on the other hand are better quality counterfeit goods - You shouldn't be able to tell the difference.
So, what makes a consumer want to purchase and wear knockoff brands? Why do some people wear knockoff brands and others don't?
Well, according to Basu et al. (2015), there are many factors that influence consumers’ purchase intentions including brand loyalty, personal gratification, perception, ethics, social motivation, and value – where social motivation and value are the most influential factors. Remarkably, the functional value of goods are not so important (Rahimnia & Arian, 2021).
There are many factors that influence consumers’ purchase intentions including brand loyalty, personal gratification, perception, ethics, social motivation, and value.
Brand loyalty
Brand loyalty is essentially a consumer’s commitment to a brand. If a consumer is loyal to a brand, it is likely that they will repeat purchases from that brand. But why do we wear the brands we do? Well, consumers want to be associated with a brand because they appreciate its personality – the values and lifestyle that it uniquely conveys. Believe it or not, brands have their own personality characteristics just like humans. There are five types of brand personality: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. Can you think of brands that fit under any of these? Furthermore, many consumers buy brands because of their implied ‘genuine quality’ (Basu et al., 2015).
Personal gratification
Personal gratification is the need for a sense of accomplishment, recognition, and the desire to enjoy the best and greatest things in life. It would make sense that a consumer with a high level of personal gratification would be more conscious of their fashion choices because they are inclined to wear genuine goods. These consumers are likely to have negative attitudes towards knockoffs and counterfeits.
Ethics
Ethics are principles and involves the action of questioning, discovering and defending what is moral – this involves our values, principles and purpose. It can help us separate what is right from what is wrong. If a consumer makes an ethical judgement that counterfeit goods are bad, they would be unlikely to purchase counterfeit goods.
Social motivation
Fashion plays a big role in how we’re perceived and want to be perceived by others. Consumers’ preferences for luxury brands are based on the satisfaction of at least one social goal (Zhang et al., 2019). We can use fashion to express our unique selves to others, but we also dress to fit into the society we live in. Consumers wear brands because brands are perceptible, admirable, and can possibly indicate the wearer’s social status. According to Wang (2021), because luxury fashion is associated with a high price tag and can somewhat be rare, it can be implied that its wearer is maybe of a high status, wealthy, and/or successful. Of course, this may not always be the case. Some consumers wear counterfeit fashion simply for pleasure and assume that other people don’t take notice (Purwanto et al., 2019).
Value
Value refers to the degree of financial or pleasurable service a good can offer a consumer. Why bother to pay a large amount for an item you really like when you could buy a similar one of good quality as well, but for a better price? If a consumer already purchases knockoffs and counterfeit luxury goods, because of the economic and hedonic benefits involved, it is likely that they will purchase more in the future (Yoo & Lee, 2009).
Personality
What is more, our personalities can have a large influence towards how we feel about buying counterfeit goods. Babamiri et al. (2020) investigated the relationship between the Big Five personality characteristics (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), and attitudes towards the purchasing of counterfeit goods. The researchers found that extraversion and agreeableness were associated with a positive attitude towards purchasing counterfeit goods. Extraversion is a trait associated with standing out in a crowd, thriving in social situations, outgoingness, and being the centre of attention. Whereas agreeableness is associated with prosocial behaviours such as helping others, being truthful, empathic, and cooperating. Openness on the other hand, was instead associated with a negative attitude towards purchasing counterfeit goods. Openness is associated with curiosity, an eagerness to learn and explore new experiences, independence, and creativity. Make of that what you will.
Are there consequences?
Research has shown the consequences of wearing counterfeit fashion. Pretending to be luxury owners to maintain social identities can lead to anxiety and risks (Wang et al., 2019). For instance, Gino et al. (2010) found that when a consumer believes that a product they are wearing is not genuine, it can make the consumer feel inauthentic, and increases their likelihood to behave dishonestly! Not only that, those wearing counterfeits saw other people as dishonest! Imagine that.
At the end of the day, what we wear is a personal choice and knockoffs and dupes offers an affordable alternative to expensive or exclusive items.
Babamiri, M., Heidari Moghadam, R., Saeidnia, H., & Zemestani, M. (2020). Relationship between personality characteristics and attitude toward purchase of counterfeit goods in the Iranian population. Cogent Psychology, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2020.1779000
Basu, M., Basu, S. & Lee, J. (2015). Factors Influencing Consumer's Intention to Buy Counterfeit Products. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 15(6), 23-35.
Gino, F., Norton, M. I., & Ariely, D. (2010). The Counterfeit Self: The Deceptive Costs of Faking It. Psychological Science, 21(5), 712-720. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41062274
Purwanto, P., Margiati, L., Kuswandi, K., & Prasetyo, B. (2019). Consumer motives for purchasing counterfeit luxury products: behind the status signalling behaviour using brand prominence. Business: Theory and Practice, 20, 208-215. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2019.20
Rahimnia, F. & Arian, N. H. (2021). Luxury consumption and the moderating role of attitude toward counterfeits: The case of an emerging market. Journal of General Management, 47(1), 41-55. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063070211013335
Wang, Y., Stoner, J. L., & John, D. R. (2019). Counterfeit Luxury Consumption in a Social Context: The Effects on Females’ Moral Disengagement and Behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29(2), 207-225. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1071
Wang, Y. (2021). A conceptual framework of contemporary luxury consumption. International Journal of Research in Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2021.10.010
Yoo, B. & Lee. S. (2009). Buy Genuine Luxury Fashion Products Or Counterfeits? Advances in Consumer Research, 36(7), 280-286.
Zhang, W., Jin, J., Wang, A., Ma, Q., & Yu, H. (2019). Consumers' Implicit Motivation Of Purchasing Luxury Brands: An EEG Study. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 12, 913-929. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S215751
The Psychology Of Impulse Buying
A Converse shoe box I will never see again.
Dear my Converse Something... Something... Something (whatever your name was, it was long, I can't remember it), I am writing to let you know that I don’t miss you at all. I'm sat in Greggs, reflecting on why I sent you to the Post Office a week ago. I remember it so well like it was yesterday. I put you back in your box and stuck the return label on. When the cashier handed me my proof of postage, the sun disappeared behind the clouds. You were meant to be my shoe for the summer – but instead you are no more. Now you can be with someone else who deserves you. You broke my heart-
Just kidding. I recently purchased a sick pair of Chuck 70s from the Converse online store. As the proud owner of 16 pairs of Converse, I was in no need to purchase a new pair, yet that didn't stop me from accidentally ending up on the Converse website during a convenient midseason sale. They were beautiful, they were calling me... Psssst. I got them in the post a week later and was bummed. They didn't fit me well so I sent them back. I was debating whether to keep them because, you know? Why not? Buying on impulse... What’s the deal with it?
What is impulse buying?
Impulse buying is a term used to describe unplanned immediate purchases upon exposure to impulse stimuli (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2021). The causes of impulsive behaviour are “triggered by an irresistible force to buy and an inability to evaluate its consequences. Despite being aware of the negative effects of buying, there is an enormous desire to immediately satisfy your most pressing needs” (Meena, 2018).
"...An enormous desire to immediately satisfy your most pressing needs."
Impulse buying is profitable
Because impulse buying is profitable, marketers want to induce impulse buying. In a study, Bandyopadhyay et al. (2021) found that immediate promotions, financial (e.g., price discounts) or not (e.g., bonus pack) resulted in consumers having higher urges to buy impulsively.
Impulse buying is linked to immediate gratification
The tendency to buy thoughtlessly, and without reflection, can be explained by the immediate gratification it provides consumers (Pradhan et al., 2018).
Impulse buying triggers
Impulse buying can be triggered by the store environment, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and the emotional state of the consumer at the time before purchase (Gogoi & Shillong, 2020). According to Iyer et al. (2019), traits (e.g., sensation-seeking), motives (e.g., hedonic), resources (e.g., time, money), and marketing stimuli are key triggers of impulse buying. Positive emotions increase impulse buying. In a study by Park et al. (2006), it was found that fashion involvement and positive emotion had positive effects on consumers' fashion-oriented impulse buying behaviour with fashion involvement having the greatest effect. Hedonic consumption tendency is an important mediator in determining fashion-oriented impulse buying.
Online impulse buying
Have you ever seen, “ONLY ONE LEFT IN STOCK!” or a countdown (e.g., “SALE ENDS IN X HOURS X MINUTES”) on online clothing websites? Online promotional activities with restrictive conditions (i.e., time-limits) pressure consumers to make decisions in a short amount of time. It creates a sense of urgency in which consumers should act on buying a product or service as soon as possible, or they’ll miss out. According to Luo et al. (2021), this causes psychological oppression, where consumers are the victim. Time-limited promotional activities increase consumers’ perceived risk of opportunity loss. It is suggested that the longer time-limited promotional activities last, consumers’ impulse purchase intentions decrease.
Have you ever seen, “ONLY ONE LEFT IN STOCK!” or a countdown (e.g., “SALE ENDS IN X HOURS X MINUTES”) on online retail websites?
Experiences of impulse buying
Sundström et al. (2019) interviewed young consumers to explore their impulse fashion buying behaviours when shopping online. Participants’ impulse purchases are motivated by boredom; bored participants were likely to be enticed by price and free delivery. The researchers suggest that impulse buying acts like a coping mechanism to overcome boredom. Boredom is replaced by feelings of pleasure when participants click on ‘buy now’. Low price was a key trigger for all participants, they like to browse through offers and sales. Participants made note that scarcity was a factor in making an impulse purchase (as mentioned above). Scarcity is one of the six principles of persuasion according to Cialdini (2015), who wrote a book called, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”. People value things more when they are scarce. What is more, participants stated that they were influenced to shop online because of advertisements. Interestingly, many participants had little or no intentions to return items that they weren’t keen on. In addition, participants preferred to shop in the evening, perhaps not to get distracted.
Hopefully you’ve learned a little (at least one thing) about impulse buying?
Bandyopadhyay, N., Sivakumaran, B., Patro, S. K., & Kumar, R. S. (2021). Immediate or delayed! Whether various types of consumer sales promotions drive impulse buying?: An empirical investigation. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102532
Cialdini, R. (2015). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Harper Collins.
Gogoi, B. & Shillong, I. (2020). Do impulsive buying influence compulsive buying? Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 24(4), 1-15.
Iyer, G. R., Blut, M., Xiao, S. H. & Grewal, D. (2019). Impulse buying: a meta-analytic review. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 384-404. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00670-w
Luo, H., Cheng, S., Zhou, W., Song, W., Yu, S., & Lin, X. (2021). Research on the Impact of Online Promotions on Consumers’ Impulsive Online Shopping Intentions. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 16(6), 2386-2404. https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer16060131
Meena, S. (2018). Consumer psychology and marketing. International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, 218-222. https://www.ijrar.org/papers/IJRAR190A044.pdf
Park, J. E., Kim, Y. E., & Forney, C. J. (2006). A structural model of fashion‐oriented impulse buying behavior. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 10(4), 433-446. https://doi.org/10.1108/13612020610701965
Pradhan, D., Israel, D., & Jena, A. (2018). Materialism and compulsive buying behaviour: the role of consumer credit card use and impulse buying. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 30, 1355-5855. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-08-2017-0164
Sundström, M., Hjelm-Lidholm, S., & Radón, A. (2019). Clicking the boredom away – Exploring impulse fashion buying behavior online. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 47, 150-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JRETCONSER.2018.11.006
MBTI Fashion
No, you can’t wear that.
When I first started Psychology, But Make It Fashion, many people wanted to know how to dress according to their MBTI. I was taken aback. Back in its infancy, MBTI YouTube Shorts were the most popular videos on the PBMIF YouTube channel! (Thou shall not be found anymore). A lot of people disliked the Shorts; and gave them an actual thumbs down! You'll see why in a bit. I thought wow people really like this thing... Its popularity is mind-boggling.
Actual questions asked: Can you write an article on MBTI fashion? Can you tell me how the MBTI types dress? How should I dress according to my MBTI? How should an ENFP dress? Is MBTI fashion real? Can I use the MBTI to style my clients? Should I not wear dresses anymore?
In order to deter such questions from being asked again, I have decided to write about it.
Does our personality determine our style? Surely it does, right?
Have you ever heard of MBTI? Has anyone ever asked you for your MBTI, and then told you that they can’t hang out with you anymore because, according to their MBTI, you’re not compatible with them? 💔
It kind of reminds me of astrology and horoscopes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with people who have an interest in horoscopes and compatibility and all that. But please, don’t let it hinder you from potentially making great relationships with others. Please do not base your whole personality on four letters that you got from taking a five minute quiz.
You're most certainly a multi-dimensional and unique individual that can't be placed into a small box.
I've also seen that it's been used for job screening in some countries. What?! Imagine being turned down for an interview because you were an I and not an E... Because does that really matter out of all things? *face palm*
It's also so mysterious how it's so popular in countries such as South Korea... Mega popular. Well, it's definitely a conversation starter for sure.
What is MBTI?
Now, MBTI stands for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, it’s named after its creators. The focus of MBTI is to categorise people according to the way they think and act based on four dimensions: introversion vs. extraversion; sensing vs. intuition; thinking vs. feeling; and judging vs. perceiving. When you take the MBTI personality test you will end up with a string of 4 letters, one letter from each dimension (in bold) (e.g., ESTP).
That’s great and all, but what about it?
The MBTI is based upon Carl Jung’s (unsupported) theories that are not so regarded in psychology today.
The dichotomies fail to make sense. Why should I have to fit in one or the other alone, and not both?
Not only that, the test delivers inconsistent results.
Someone somewhere probably: Why am I INFJ today when I was INTJ last month?!?!
There is little to no research in psychology on the MBTI because psychology journals basically just have no concern for it. Stein and Swan (2019), sum up the MBTI quite well with its involvement in psychology, “MBTI's continued popularity says about how the general public might evaluate scientific theories. Presumably, a purpose of the field of psychology is to assist the general public in becoming psychologically literate. Unfortunately, the ideas about psychology that gain the most traction with the public can lack theoretical rigor.
"MBTI lacks agreement with known data, lacks testability, and suffers from internal contradictions.
"Today the administration and interpretation of the MBTI is a huge business and force in shaping the general public's perceptions of psychology.”
In other words, psychology nowadays aims to be as scientific as possible, but one of the most popular ideas in psychology is not. Psychology, the science of the mind, has had a tough time being recognised as a science.
Why should I have to fit in one or the other alone, and not both?
According to Stromberg and Caswell (2015), the test is just simply for entertainment. I wasn’t surprised at all when I found literally no research on MBTI and fashion.
To answer the question, MBTI (fashion) is rather nonsense - but it could do with a lot of tweaking... and actual research not carried out by big businesses for profit.
If you're an MBTI fan, and you like the MBTI ~vibes~, and you want to dress like your MBTI, by all means go ahead. As long as you're comfortable - Dress however you want - Your fashion is yours to explore - that's the PBMIF philosophy, and always will be.
The PBMIF slogan isn't curiosity is the best outfit for nothing!
Rather, take a look at the Big Five Model of personality... What could this say about your fashion sense?
The Big Five model is one of the most popular models of personality. It concerns five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN)), as the measure of personality. A lot of research has been carried out on this model. The Big Five is predictive for things such as relationship satisfaction, education, and job performance, whereas the MBTI is not, at all. The model demonstrates replicability across different cultures and test-retest reliability. The Big Five is currently the dominant model of personality in the literature (Feher & Vernon, 2021).
Take the Big Five personality test here and see if the results of this research matches your style.
The Big Five is a self-report personality test. There are 50 short statements to answer. Your results will be displayed in a bar chart showing the level of each trait. There are five traits. The lower the bar, the lower the trait.
Stolovy (2021) explored the relationships between clothing practices, personality, and body image among women using the Big Five model. 792 surveys were received from women from both urban and rural areas in one country, with a mean age of 42 years. Two thirds of the sample were married women, and just over half were mothers. Over 80% of participants stated that they had an academic degree, and a majority considered themselves as non-religious.
The researcher found that:
Conscientiousness was related with a classic style of dress; formal, conventional and representative. Do you dress formally? Conscientiousness is associated with organisation, punctuality, and reliability.
Those who scored low on agreeableness were related with a unique style of dress. Agreeableness is associated with a person’s tendency to put others’ needs above their own, warmth, and cooperation. Considering this, it is more likely that these participants did not care what others thought about their style.
On the other hand, extraversion was related with an urban style of dress (playful and eclectic). According to the Big Five model, extraversion is associated with being a people person, outgoingness, and sociability in general.
Those who scored high on openness were related with an urban style of dress as well. Openness to experience is associated with creativeness and curiosity.
Does your style reflect your personality or maybe not...?
This study indicates that personality traits influence our clothing choices, and highlights the importance of the psychology of dress, a neglected area of research (Stolovy, 2021). It would be quite interesting to see this study replicated cross culturally, and with men as the sample.
Feher, A. & Vernon, P. A. (2021). Looking beyond the Big Five: A selective review of alternatives to the Big Five model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110002
Stein, R. & Swan, A. B. (2019). Evaluating the validity of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator theory: A teaching tool and window into intuitive psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12434
Stolovy, T. (2021). Styling the Self: Clothing Practices, Personality Traits, and Body Image Among Women. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.719318
Stromberg, J. & Caswell, E. (2015, Oct 08). Why the Myers-Briggs test is totally meaningless. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless